The defender has described his experience of working alongside the mercurial striker, who was by no means afraid to “put his foot down” at Old Trafford.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic “got the exceptional out of everyone” during his time at Manchester United, in accordance to Luke Shaw, who says the Swede would never tolerate all of us slacking off in training.
Jose Mourinho lured the Swedish forward to Old Trafford on a free transfer in the summer of 2016, reuniting with the man who helped him win his first Serie A title with Inter seven years earlier.
Ibrahimovic had additionally enjoyed successful spells at Ajax, Juventus, Barcelona, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain prior to his arrival in Manchester, and was able to transfer his fantastic form in the front of goal to the Premier League seamlessly.
He hit 28 goals throughout all competitions in his debut season with United, and scored twice in a League Cup final victory over Southampton, whilst additionally assisting the club on the road to success in the Europa League.
Unfortunately, the 38-year-old was only in a position to feature in seven matches the following season as he struggled to overcome an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury, and ended up leaving the club in March 2018 to take up a new task in MLS with the LA Galaxy.
Shaw remembers Ibrahimovic being ready to “absolutely kill” every body who failed to pull their weight on the training pitch, and insists the striker was a “great” impact in the dressing room due to his winning mentality.
“He was mad. I think he was what we wished in the dressing room,’ the United full-back stated during the Combat Corona FIFA Twitch tournament .
“He’s unbelievable, he nevertheless had the talent and even even though he was a bit older he was nonetheless the amazing player that he had been.
“But I think inside the dressing room he was great. He had a lot of jokes however I think when it got serious, and when he had to sort of put his foot down, you knew about it.
“I think he was a born winner. Even in little training games, if he didn’t win and you were on his team he would simply kill you.
“So I think he got the best out of every body when he was there, as in training-wise, because people couldn’t sort of [slack] off due to the fact if you’re on his team and you lose, you’re dead.
“And honestly you can ask all of us in the team, that was the situation. But I think everyone cherished him and it was just disappointing that he got that awful injury.”
